The Director General of the Voice of Nigeria, Osita Okechukwu, has
said the actualisation of the Republic of Biafra is no longer feasible.
He therefore requested ethnic Igbos to call the agitators to order,
do a rethink and support President Muhammadu Buhari “in constructing a
prosperous and progressive Nigeria”.
According to him, with the unwritten zoning convention for the
rotation of political power in the country, the Igbo race in the South
East zone would likely produce President Muhammadu Buhari’s successor in
2023.
Mr. Okechukwu spoke on Wednesday in Abuja at a colloquium organized
by the Federal Capital Territory Chapter of the Igbo socio-cultural
organization, Ohaneze Ndigbo.
The leader of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu, is
currently facing treason charges over the group’s agitation for the
actualization of the Republic of Biafra.
The Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, began the agitation some years ago.
The attempt to carve out Biafra Republic in Southern Nigeria led to 30 months civil war.
Mr. Okechukwu said the greatest indication that Biafra was impossible
to actualise, was the successive national conferences in the country
where the five Igbo states voted against regionalism.
“If we must tell ourselves the truth, the greatest obstacle to the
actualisation of Biafra, was glaringly demonstrated by successive
national conferences, the Abacha Conference and Jonathan Conference, in
each of the two conferences the issue of region was voted against by
Enugu and Ebonyi states,” he said.
“The Jonathan Conference of 2014, for instance was made up of
pro-Biafra elements whom a lot had assumed will support regionalism as a
prelude to secession. Other states like Ogun, Lagos, Bayelsa, Cross
River and majority of Northern States rejected regionalism. To cap it
all the Jonathan Conference recommended the creation of over 50 states.”
Mr. Okechukwu said Biafra agitators must sample the opinion of the
people, both at home and abroad, especially the itinerant travelers if
their agitation was for collective benefit.
He said, “One is sure that most Ndigbo will call for ceasefire,
especially when we are aware that the zoning convention of rotation of
president between North and South offers the South East the greatest
opportunity of producing Nigeria president of Igbo extraction.”
“This golden opportunity will end the issue of marginalization, will
gazette the true republican nature of Ndigbo and return us to the
mainstream of Nigeria.
“The doubting Thomases will doubt this projection, but it is real and
anchored on the truism that in the public domain is the law with its
legal teeth and the convention with its moral weight, mostly unwritten.
This thesis projects that in 2023 when President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR,
by God’s grace completes his two term tenure, it will be the turn of
the South.
“At this juncture, Ndigbo relying on equity and justice will make a
good case, persuade and lobby Nigerians, in particular our South West
and South-South brothers and sisters to support us, since they both had
served eight and five years respectively in this 4th Republic. For no
one ethnic group can win the presidency of this great country alone.”
Mr. Okechukwu said the scenario he painted showed that if it was good
for Nigeria, the Igbo ethnic nationality, which he described as the
second largest in population after the original indigenes of Lagos,
Kano, and 23 other states of the federation, would be one of the
greatest beneficiaries.
He said, “The agitation for Biafra sounds as a good music, much fun
and furry as if it is the only route to Eldorado. This is false as some
of us who lived in the defunct Biafra enclave can narrate.
“The question one had always posed is can Biafra be achieved via
democracy or by force? Most people one had discussed with had always
told me it will be achieved via peaceful means, which in other words
means democracy.”
The VON DG said he recalled while on the entourage of Mr. Buhari to
the World Igbo Congress (WIC) in the United States in 2004, papers were
presented to the effect that the United Nations (UN) was processing the
application of Ndigbo for an independent Biafra.
“This is over a decade and the germane question remains at what stage
is our application? Is their records in the UN which suites our case?
If there is none, the option is home-made democratic process.
“As stated earlier only very few are advocating force, and
unfortunately, visible obstacles seem to taint the acclaimed democratic
process.”
Predicting that the Biafra agitators would disagree with his position
on the issue, Mr. Okechukwu said at 61 years of age, it would be a
disservice to his ancestors, Ndigbo and Nigeria for him not to say the
truth.
Credit- Premium Times
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